The New Girl
by Roseshay102
Summary: House gets a new partner. He's not sure how things are going to go with her at first.
1. Chapter 1

I've never spent so much time getting ready for something in my life. This wasn't just any old first day of work. This was my first day of work with Dr. Gregory House, one of the best doctors in New Jersey. The fact that my name was even going to be associated with his was a miracle and I wanted to make a good impression.

I roll up to the office door…no punch buttons…awesome. How was I supposed to get the door now? I was debating how awkward it would be to knock when suddenly he looked up. He furrowed his brows, got up, and limped over. He opened the door just a crack. "Can I help you?"

"Uh, I'm Shana Graves, the med student you hired."

"Ah yes, my latest lemming; come in, take a seat…wait scratch that last part."

He led me to a table. "Pick a spot and get comfy, the other lemmings will be along shortly. Take a look at this while we wait." He tossed me a file. I missed it completely and papers spewed everywhere. "Wow, you're worse than Thirteen."

"I'm sorry…it's just that CP makes catching anything an issue. If I could help pick it up I would." I look down hoping he wouldn't notice me blushing.

"Cerebral Palsy…interesting. How the hell did you make it through med school?"

The question brought out a snarky side of me I didn't know I had. "Quite easily in fact; you of all people should know CP doesn't always come with cognitive impairment. In fact it usually comes with above average intelligence."

His eyebrows rose. He looked impressed. "A gimp and a smart ass; this could be fun."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I'm so sorry I haven't updated since last month. I haven't known what to do with this story for the longest time. I hope you guys like this new chapter. Please Read &amp; Review

Two people walked through the door of House's office as I was examining the file he gave me. One was a tall brunette; the other was a middle aged man with dark skin. The man was carrying a cup of coffee.

The two find their spot at the table and shoot me a questioning glance as House enters the room.

"Who's she?" the brunette asks, jamming her thumb in my direction.

"She's the new Masters. She's a med student, third year. If I had it my way I wouldn't have hired her but Cuddy made me."

The woman's gaze turns back to me and her eyebrows rise.

"Shana Graves." I introduce myself shyly.

"Remy Hadley; I also answer to Thirteen." She extends her hand and I take it, looking around the room to see if anyone would answer the question in my head.

The man spoke up. "Thirteen was her number in a game House used to decide which new fellows to hire. It just kind of stuck. I'm Foreman by the way." He shakes my hand as well.

"Alright, alright, enough socialising, in case you've all forgotten we have a case. Thirty year old male, works on a construction site; passed out while demolishing a house. Go." Everyone immediately obeyed House's command and opened the case file in front of them. The spitfire of ideas started immediately. I sigh contently and look around the room again. I think I might like working here.


	3. Chapter 3

I sat in front of the construction workers house, still unsure as to exactly what I was doing there. After ruling out the obvious suspects as to why he passed out like dehydration or exhaustion House had sent Foreman and I to go look for toxins at the guys' house while Thirteen stayed back to do blood cultures. I thought it was a pointless endeavor since the tox screen came back negative for any drugs but wanting to stay on my new boss's good side I went along anyway.

We took Foreman's car since Foreman thought that my handicap accessible van would be too much of an identifier if we were caught. He was right of course, but I would never give him the satisfaction of knowing that. Getting into Foreman's car, even with his help, took a good ten minutes. We were both huffing and puffing by the time I was safely buckled into my seat. "You know, if it would be easier I could just stay in the car while you go search the guy's house." I really didn't want to search the place to begin with and me staying in the car _would_ be easier on Foreman…and me for that matter. Getting into the car had exhausted every muscle in my body. I looked at Foreman hoping he would take my suggestion.

"No way, I need backup. You're coming with me."

I sighed heavily inwardly praying that the guy's house wasn't wheelchair accessible.

We pulled up to the address we were given and to my dismay there were no visible barriers to my entry of the house. It looked like someone had even built a ramp up to the front door. _Interesting_ I thought to myself.

Foreman maneuvered me out of his car and into my chair then we both made our way to the door. He picked the lock with surprising ease and we went inside. The place was nicer than I expected for a construction worker.

Foreman began swabbing the kitchen and I took the living room. On cursory inspection nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The furniture was nice, the room was clean, there were a few nice decorations scattered on the walls. "Hey," Foreman yelled from the kitchen, "there's like, a drawer full of pain pills in here."

Interested in what he found I was about to join him in the kitchen when my eyes fell on a picture sitting on the coffee table. It was of our patient and he was with a woman in a wheelchair, I assumed she was his wife. _So that's what the ramp was for. _Her face was smiling, but her eyes were dark; like she was trying not to cry.

"I don't think the pain pills are his." I yelled at Foreman.

He wandered over and stood beside me examining the picture. "Maybe not, but that doesn't mean he's not taking them."

Back at House's office we quickly told him what we found. Foreman was in the middle of explaining our "he's stealing his wife's pills" theory when my leg started to spasm. It was an intense burning pain and I came very close to bursting into tears. I was just coherent enough to hear House tell Foreman and Thirteen to go interrogate the patient and order me to stay put.

When the other two were gone House looked at me knowingly. He limped over to his desk drawer, grabbed a bottle of pills and limped back over to me. He poured out two and put them in my hand. It took me a minute to realize the pills were Valium. I took them gratefully and a few minutes later the spasm relaxed. "How did you know?" I asked. I thought I had hid the pain pretty well.

"Did you really think you could hide pain from me? Now go. See if you can get the patient to admit he's been jacking drugs."


	4. Chapter 4

Well we never did get the guy to confess but turns out we didn't need to. The pills had nothing to do with him passing out. The guy had Meniere's disease. Fluid was built up in his inner ear. This caused severe vertigo causing him to pass out. Of course House had to figure this out after we drilled the guy about drugs for three days straight. Oh well, we had our answer and that was all House cared about.

I sat down to lunch alone, fully expecting to stay that way when suddenly I see House limping over to my table.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked while sliding into the booth across from me.

"I guess not." I chuckled. "Won't Wilson be lonely?"

"He had a lunch date already so you get me all to yourself."

"Ok…but why? Why would you choose to hang out with me when you could just as easily go back to your office and hang out by yourself?"

"One, I'm hungry. Two, you interest me."

"Why's that?"

"You hid pain. Only reason someone would do that is that they feel like they need to be strong. I saw the tears building up; any normal person would've been screaming their head off by that point. Why weren't you?"

"Same reason you don't scream your head off every time your leg starts to hurt. You're used to the pain. You've built up a tolerance. When it gets really bad you just grin and bear it so no one has to see what you're going through."

"Hmm." House was apparently satisfied with my answer and went back to eating his lunch. The discussion of pain would come back to haunt us later on.

**A/N: **Sorry it took so long to update guys! Wrote this chapter on my iPod on an airplane to Montreal and never got around to retyping and posting it. Hopefully this chapter makes up for the long wait. Please read, review, and share with your friends!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Yet another chapter written on a plane…this time to Georgia! Hope you enjoy **

About a month after my conversation with House in the cafeteria I rolled into work to find him lying on the floor. It was April first so I figured he was playing some kind of trick on me; you know, jump up and scare the crap out of the girl with the insane startle reflex. It was only when I got closer that I realized he was breathing heavily and sweating. Both his hands were wrapped tightly around his thigh.

"House?! What's wrong?" I threw myself out of my chair and sat next to him on the floor.

"N-nothing's wrong." he said while panting.

"How bad is it?"

"Ten." He was still panting.

House could handle pain better than anyone I'd ever seen. If he was at a ten then it was really bad. Tears had started flowing out of his eyes and he was whimpering. I had to do something. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and started dialing. House's hand reached out to stop me.

"No, don't. No one needs to know about this." His voice was soft but insistent.

"Well I can't get you off the floor myself so what do you want me to do?"

He grimaced, and then nodded. "Call Cuddy."

"Oh my god! How long has he been like this?" Cuddy raced to House's side and helped him sit up, House whimpering in the process.

"He was like this when I came in about 20 minutes ago."

"You didn't think to call for help twenty minutes ago?" Cuddy was fuming.

"He wouldn't let me. He barely consented to calling you."

"Did you manage to get a pain rating out of him?"

"He was at a ten."

Cuddy's eyes softened. "Stay with him. I'll go get help."

Cuddy ran out of the room, and I was left to comfort a tired and desperate House who wanted nothing more than to escape from the pain.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Yes, I realize it's been forever. I'm soooo sorry. Honestly I had forgotten about this story. Some recent new followers have reminded me that this story needs a long overdue update.**

"How's he doing?" I lifted my eyes from the book I was reading and found Wilson standing in the doorway of House's hospital room.

"He's stable. He's still a little tachycardic, but that should be fixed when his next dose of morphine is given."

Wilson nodded, seemingly approving of my assessment of his friend. He then said something that caught me completely off guard. "You know, I've been thinking. I think House likes you."

"What makes you think that? House is just as much of an asshole to me as he is to everyone else on his team. The only difference is that I know how to take it. House is playing with me. I'm new; he wants to see how far he can push me. Once he gets bored I'll be discarded like an old teddy bear, destined to live at the bottom of the toy box forever."

A smile crossed Wilson's face. "You really don't get it do you? House's wife left him after he had the infarction. He's been a miserable bastard ever since. He's been searching for a real human connection for years and you're the perfect fit. You're smart; you don't take crap from anybody. You think like him, you even talk like him. You're a female version of him and he likes you."

"So because I can dish out insults and speak in metaphors I'm the perfect fit for House?"

"Yeah. I think you like him too. Why else would you have tried to help him this morning?"

"Hmmmm….let's see, because he was in pain and I assumed that it wasn't a state he wanted to stay in. Whether I like him or not I know what he's going through." I took a breath and continued. My voice came out softer than I expected it to. "I know what it's like to have your body suck at doing what it's supposed to. I know what it's like to have something as simple as standing up feels like an epic battle. You have days where you think _'I can change this. I can make this better if I just try harder.' _So you do. You're all pumped to get up, start working out, and get better. Everything starts off well and you have hope that for once this might actually work. Then you screw up. You move wrong, or something gives out and suddenly you're lying helpless on the floor. You can't get up. You're reminded that no matter what you do your body will always have control over you and there's nothing you can do about it."

Wilson stares at me for a minute and then turns and leaves shutting the door behind him. I heave a sigh and turn back to my book as I wait for House to wake up.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey guys, not too long of a wait this time. Enjoy! Also, PCA= Personal Care Aide**

By the next day House was acting like the pain attack had never happened. He was back to work and sharp as ever. While I was happy he was better, I couldn't stop thinking about what Wilson had said. I rolled out of a finished differential and straight into his open office door. House was doing an MRI on a patient so I had some time. Wilson looked up from the paperwork on his desk when he saw me.

"I need some advice." I said as I closed the door behind me.

"About what?"

"About House; I think I really am starting to like him. What do I do? He'll never go out with me."

"You're right, which is why you can't let him know it's a date."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean make it seem like work. Ask him to stay and look over a patient file or something and see where it goes from there."

"Thanks Wilson."

I smiled, turned, and rolled out the door. Wilson definitely had the right idea, but I would need something more believable than going over a patient file.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Hi, Shana, sorry I can't come in this afternoon. My car broke down. I'm so sorry."

"No problem, Jenny. Thanks for letting me know. I'll see what I can do."

I hung up the phone with a sigh. It looked like I'd be going without a PCA tonight. Unless…yes that could work. Wilson did say to make it seem like work and this way it actually would be.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"House, we need to talk." I rolled in front of his desk and leaned my arms on it.

House raised his eyebrows and mirrored my position. I continued.

"My PCA just called. She said she won't be able to come in for her night shift. Her car broke down. I couldn't find a replacement."

I hadn't actually looked for a replacement, but House didn't need to know that.

"Ask Wilson. He's always looking to save the needy. I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

"Already tried that; no luck." Another lie, but it came out easily.

"Now I suppose you're here to ask me if I'll do it."

I nodded once, sharply. He stroked the stubble on his chin in thought.

"I'll follow you home after work."

I nodded again, a slight smile on my lips, and turned away. I didn't dare to say thank you.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hi guys, forewarning I started writing this chapter at 11:30 at night on Saturday because I was bored. It is now the following Saturday and I am just getting over a cold. Don't judge me too harshly. Also, song lyrics come from "We Go Home" by Adam Cohen.**

House followed me home as promised. He pulled his motorcycle into my driveway seconds after my car was parked. When I opened the door he was already ready and waiting with my chair.

"How did you know-?"

"I see you and whatever-her-name-is do this every morning. I know how this works. Come on, grab my shoulders."

I do and he gently guides me to the ground, and then to my chair.

"Think I've got it from here. I'll see you inside."

I unlocked my door, and was inside settled on the couch by the time House got inside.

"Comfy?" he asks, raising his eyebrows at me.

"Quite. Care to join me?"

He shakes his head quickly.

"No, I think I'll just give myself a little tour of the house."

"I could show you around if you want."

I start to pull my chair closer so I could get into it, but House stops me.

"It's ok, don't bother. I'll be fine on my own."

"Ok. If you're sure."

He turned away and headed down the hallway to my kitchen. I settled back into the couch and grabbed my laptop. I may as well do something productive.

After a few minutes of typing up the charts House refused to do I heard the sound of a guitar coming out of my room. He must've found the acoustic my grandpa gave me when he died. I had never been able to play, but it was nice to have.

I got up off the couch and followed the sweet, familiar melody. House was playing a song that I had been obsessed with from the moment I heard it.

I stopped in the doorway of my room.

_Yeah, the radio is on,_

_But the signal is weak._

_We both know this song._

_Way down deep._

_Doesn't matter if we talk, _

_Cause talk is cheap._

_There's so much the eyes say,_

_That we don't speak._

I moved closer to my bed, where House was sitting. He was so lost in the song that he startled in surprise when I joined in on the next line, but he kept playing.

_I know I know. I'm not supposed to think about you. _

_I know I know. Act natural around you._

_I know I'm not supposed to think of your thirsty rose._

_I know I know. I know I know._

We finished the rest of the song, each of us taking whatever part felt right. When it over there was a hum of happiness and energy in the air.

"I didn't know you sang." said House quietly.

"I didn't know you did either."

As soon as the words were out House pulled me close, then we kissed. The world was temporarily forgotten.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Guys, I cannot believe it's been so long. I left you hanging so badly. Life has just sort of gotten away from me. I've started classes for a degree in social work and started writing for a blog. Completely let you guys slide, but I'm back with more now. Enjoy!**

House pulled away before I did. The look in his eyes was content at first, then moved to shock. He cleared his throat and mumbled something about going to fix dinner before I had a chance to say anything. I followed him into the kitchen. It smelled amazing. Apparently the man could cook.

"Are you just going to pretend like that didn't happen?"

House continued to busy himself with preparing whatever delicious concoction he'd thought up, ignoring my question.

"House? Hello? Did you hear me?"

"I heard you, just don't want to talk."

He sounded upset which was strange. He had nothing to be upset about, at least in my opinion. I tried again; my voice came out softer this time.

"House, talk to me. What's going on?"

"I shouldn't have kissed you."

"Wha-? House, why would you say that?"

"I saw the way you looked at me when you pulled away. You enjoyed the kiss."

"Well, yeah. It was nice. I thought you'd be happy about that."

He turned away from the pot he was stirring to face me.

"You don't understand. The fact that you enjoyed it is a problem. I can't do that to you."

"Do what? You haven't done anything wrong. You've been great since I started working for you. You're even voluntarily spending the night away from your TV to help me out right now. I see no problem here."

"Sure, everything's fine now, but eventually I'm going to hurt you. Not physically, I would never do that to anyone, but eventually I'll say or do something completely idiotic and you'll wind up hating me. Better to stop it now before that happens." He looked down, shielding his face from my view.

"House," I said softly, "_that_ might be the most idiotic thing you've ever said. Even Wilson thinks we're good together."

His eyebrows furrowed. "When did you talk to Wilson?"

"When you were in the hospital. He seems to think you like me."

"Well, he's not wrong."

"Good." I rolled over to him, "I like you too."

I reached up to stroke his cheek before kissing him again. This time, he seemed to be okay with it.


End file.
